Recycling & branching out into wildlife...

Hello once again it is now February 2011 and the weather is still dark and damp putting a halt to gardening at the moment. Luckily we are only half way through catching up on last years efforts so I still have plenty to talk about!

Firstly I would like to thank the many of you who have been logging on to see what mad idea I'm going to come up with next. To date as well as a large British audience we have been visited by USA, Canada, Denmark, France and Vietnam so a quick hello to you all, I hope you are enjoying my pointless ramblings and will continue to log in and see what happens next!...

Before I put you out of your suspense as to what happens with that big pile of junk from last month here's some bird stuff first....

Every January the RSPB run a survey called 'The big garden birdwatch' (BGBW). Anyone can take part in this survey by simply spending an hour watching and counting birds which visit your garden or local park. When you have the results simply send them back to the RSPB who collate them to work out which of our native birds are thriving or sadly in decline. All the information is invaluable to help with future conservation projects which makes this a nice simple way to feel like you are doing your bit for our feathered friends. The RSPB forum http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/forums/ is also well worth a visit with some great stuff on there about birds, gardens and wildlife in general.

During my BGBW I counted 20 species during the hour and was lucky to see my first Reed Bunting which also takes my own count up to 33 species seen in the garden so far!

The poor light has been particularly bad  for taking photographs recently so I haven't done too much but here's a shot that makes me smile... a greedy Pigeon coming in for landing...

Right back to the gardening and back to August/September 2010 and some nice sunny weather again!

At the end of the last blog I left you with a picture of the bottom of the garden which over the years had been used as a compost heap and general dumping area. My plans for this area were always to set it up for wildlife whilst maintaining interest and giving a natural flow an link with the open countryside beyond. Also in my very first blog entry I said that I intended to recycle what ever materials I could whilst constructing this garden....

You will now see what happened to all those branches which were cut from the trees when opening up the view last month (July)...

Firstly all the branches were sorted and any which were nice and thick and straight were cut with a chainsaw, they were then used on their ends to build a log semi circle feature at the point where the wildlife/natural area begins...  

I also bought in some 4' round posts which were cut down to size and hammered into the ground to create pathways, which will eventually be covered in bark chippings and planted with ferns and native woodland bulbs...

The thinner branches were also recycled and used to create natural borders which again when planted should become home to various types of wildlife...

From the picture below you can see how you will be led into this area and forced to walk along the woodland paths which will eventually lead you to a sunny seating area (not built yet!)...

These 'logged' enclosures were then filled with hardcore, soil and compost to create banks and planting areas which will give the area interest and depth whilst forming a natural association to the rest of the garden...

 Once planted the paths and banks will add wonderful secret areas for my young daughter and her friends to explore and hide in. Hopefully they will also be area where we can all enjoy a bit of wildlife spotting also....To increase the interest for children the banks will be turfed and as you can see from the below picture accessed by either a slope or steps so that they can run along the paths or over the top of the banks themselves....

Finally the bank with a turf  path on, you can also see that both edges have been left for planting, to the back of this I will plant native wild shrubs which will hopefully encourage wildlife and add some secrecy to the paths behind....

This is as about as far as I have got with this area so far other than planting out several hundred native bulbs such as: English bluebells, snowdrops, anemones, snakes head fritalliries, glory of the snow amongst others. Also already planted here are some ferns placed in the shade of the log bank along the paths and a selection of daffodils and tulips to add some early colour. Please do keep watching to see how this area develops as I continue landscaping and planting it.....Oh and add a bog garden with a twist!!!!!....

Once again thanks for reading.

Next time: Another bridge and a pebble stream....